Red 5 Post Mid-Beta Development Update

The beta for jetpackin’ online shooter Firefall has been in progress for a while now, and I posted some impressions on it over here. Since then Red 5 have been busy collating feedback from players and are now getting stuck into tweaking and rebalancing the game in light of all the data and suggestions they’ve received from the community. They’re overhauling the development and specialisation of the battleframes, which will have far-reaching consequences for the kinds of choices you’ll have to make as you play, fight, and gather resources. Check that out below.

So that’s what they’re saying, and it sounds positive. As I said in my preview, it’s clear that the crafting and battleframe-tweaking is really the heart of the game, and Red 5 know that they have to get it exactly right if the game is going to be particularly satisfying. And this game clearly still has a long way to go. At the point when I went into the game it felt like an extraordinarily beautiful but ultimately barebones sort of world. As they lay down more and more detail I think we’ll see that come to life, and Firefall could well end up being one of the most important games of 2012. Nor will it be a game that stops when it launches. If this is going to survive as an online experience – and I suspect it will – then it’ll need to evolve, expand and update regularly and rapidly to keep people interested. The execution of that stuff will, I think, be just as important as the state of the game on release.